01/30/14 19:00:20 ¶ ●

`launch`: a command-line launcher for OS X in the spirit of `open`

Apple provides a simple command-line launching program called open with OS X. launch offers several options that open doesn’t. It:

  • opens “slack” URLs (e.g. apple.com) and email addresses (-l)
  • lets you specify applications by their four-character creator (e.g. ‘ToyS’>) or Java-style bundle ID (e.g. com.apple.ScriptEditor2), both of which allow you to move or rename an application without changing references to it
  • lets you find applications rather than opening them (-n)
  • asks applications to print documents (-p)
  • allows you to pipe output to any GUI application (not just TextEdit)
  • displays extensive file, folder and volume information including type, creator, bundle ID, sizes, dates and versions (-f)
  • reports errors intelligibly
  • and much more!

Sounds really cool.